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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29368884">Stairway to the Skies</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Torture, Violence, grey morality</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:47:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,244</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29368884</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Mystique, a mutant known for cooperating with Sebastian Shaw, is captured by a secret government organization, agent Erik Lehnsherr thinks that this will be path to find the man who killed his mother and exact revenge. But things aren't so simple and straightforward, especially where Shaw's telepath is concerned.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>random_collection_test</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stairway to the Skies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi! </p><p>I've been writing this for some time and never shared it, but posting another fic in this fandom kind of incentivized me to post this one too :) </p><p>The title is taken from the homonym song by Within Temptation.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>2007</b>
</p><p>“Come on, Charlie,” the voice, deceptively soft, chided, “I know you can do this.”</p><p>Sweat ran on his temples and mated his hair. Charles trembled and pushed forward, trying to get a grip on the other mind. He tried to keep his focus on the man in front of him, but his eyes slipped past that, to Raven, who was looking at him with terror, absolute terror, and he could feel it coming off her in waves that almost crushed him.</p><p>“Do go on,” Sebastian told the man who held the gun against Raven's head.</p><p>
  <em> Oh please no! Stop! Stop! You can't do this—Raven! Raven! No! </em>
</p><p>And the man seemed frozen on the spot, his finger on the trigger. Sebastian looked triumphant.</p><p>“Well done, Charlie,” he said and turned to release Raven from her restraints. “You go.”</p><p>Raven looked uncertain, but she left the room—the horrible, horrible room—anyway. Sebastian turned to look at Charles again, his eyes twinkling with malice as his hand came up to touch the helmet on his head.</p><p>“I hate to bring her into this, Charles... but I am sure you can see how you needed the incentive. Now, I don't want to bring Raven back here, but I will, if I don't see you making the effort, giving the best, <em> doing </em> your best. Unfreeze him.”</p><p>Charles had not even noticed that he was still holding the man, and pushed his mind—it felt like a huge blanket—back. There was the sound of a shot, and Charles flinched.</p><p>That shot should have gone through Raven's skull. He’d stopped it, he’d saved her.</p><p>Sebastian took the gun out of the man’s hand and suddenly pushed him against the same table Raven had been before. The man struggled, but Sebastian easily—of course—overpowered him, and bound him to the table.</p><p>“Just as I don't want to bring Raven back, I think you don’t want it either... kill him, Charles. We won't leave this room until you do it.”</p><p>** ** ** **</p><p>
  <b>2014</b>
</p><p>“Name.”</p><p>Raven fidgeted but still held her chin up. She was wearing her blonde persona, but the man in front of her wasn't buying the innocent facade, not one bit. Well, she wasn't all that interested in it anyway.</p><p>“Raven,” she hesitated, “Xavier.”</p><p>“Really?” The man asked, and his eyes narrowed. “I don't think so. You are Mystique, the shapeshifter that works for Sebastian Shaw,” the last name was said with such hatred that Raven almost—almost—could sympathize with the man.</p><p>Maybe they did have something in common, but it was too early to play her cards.</p><p>“Shapeshifter?” she said blankly, as if the man were saying something absurd, “what the fuck do you mean with ‘shapeshifter’?”</p><p>Well, at least Sebastian had been right about one thing, the humans knew about them. The only question was were they really going to kill all of them?</p><p>“Yes, shapeshifter. Your natural form is blue, but you can take any form you desire. Is it necessary to lecture you about your own mutation, Mystique? We could talk for hours about that.”</p><p>Raven swallowed hard. “My name is Raven,” she said through gritted teeth. She was Raven, Charles’s sister. Mystique was the woman who did Shaw’s dirty job, someone who she didn’t want to be, someone she’d been forced to become.</p><p><br/>
<br/>
</p><p>“Whatever, Raven..." the man said. "I see you didn't deny the shapeshifting part, so let's talk about what you do for Shaw, shall we? In 2010 you invaded a school and kidnapped three children. A teacher tried to stop you and you punched her. Did you know that that woman hasn't woken up from a coma?”</p><p>Coma. She'd put a woman into a coma. An innocent woman... oh God. Of course she’d known that some stuff she’d done was potentially extremely harmful to people, but to have it declared was… it made her want to crawl out of her skin.</p><p>But that was not nearly as bad as what Charles had been—still was—forced to do, she remembered.</p><p>“In the same year you passed as a doctor and kidnapped a baby from a hospital. In 2011 you took a girl away from her parents... do you know what all these children had in common?”</p><p>Of course she knew.</p><p>"All of them were mutants, and you took them to Shaw, to brainwash them, to..." at the end, the man was shouting, and Raven felt the chair where she sat tremble. A knock on the door interrupted them. "What?" the man asked.</p><p>“Emma is here.”</p><p>That brought a smile to the man's lips, and he looked at Raven, with loathing and expectation.</p><p>"Well, let's see how you deal with a telepath," he said and left.</p><p>It was pity, really, that he didn't stay long enough to see her own smile. Well, she had experience enough with telepaths, and Charles had taught her very well how to keep him out of her mind. She doubted this Emma person would be a threat.</p><p>"Bring it on," she whispered to no one.</p><p>** ** ** **</p><p>“What do you mean, you can't read her?”</p><p>“Calm down, now, Sugar,” Emma replied, “she was trained against telepaths, Erik. To be clear, a telepath shielded her mind. I can pick some emotions, some fleeting thoughts, but nothing more. For now.”</p><p>Erik swore something in German, and Emma merely looked at her nails.</p><p>“She seems to be very worried about a Charles, that's one thing I managed to read. She is scared, and doesn't feel safe.”</p><p>“Charles? Do we know who he could be?”</p><p>“No. I don’t know of anyone with that name and works with Shaw,” she paused, “I'm surprised you are not all worked up with worry about the fact that Shaw has a telepath.”</p><p>Erik ran a hand through his hair. Of fucking course he was worried. Shaw having a telepath was one of the worst-case scenarios.</p><p>“Can't you break the block the telepath put on her mind?” he asked.</p><p>“Of course I can, eventually. I don't think Moira will agree with doing this, though…”</p><p>Which meant that the woman—Mystique, Erik reminded himself of that—would probably suffer a great deal for that to be done. Erik closed his fist and thought about this.</p><p>He wanted to stop Shaw and his associates, it was what he dedicated his life for. He wanted to kill Sebastian Shaw, so that no one else would have to suffer what he did. Oh, Hell, who was he trying to fool?</p><p>He wanted to avenge his mother, that no one else would suffer at Shaw's hands was a consequence.</p><p>Mystique had taken several children to Shaw, for them to be tortured, scarred for their lives.</p><p>Well, Erik felt no sympathy for her.</p><p>“I hate to be the voice of wisdom,” Emma said, interrupting his thoughts, “but do you really want to do the same things Shaw does? I know I can go and crack the walls inside her mind—and believe me, it will hurt a lot—and sleep just fine at night. Can you?"</p><p>“I've told you stay out of my mind!” he growled.</p><p>“You think too loud. Think in German, if you don't want me to listen. And don't think you dodged my question, Erik. You don't have to answer that to me, but to yourself.”</p><p>And, just like that, she stood up and left.</p><p>Sometimes Erik wondered how Emma could be so flippantly cold and wise at the same time.</p><p>He hated that about her.</p><p>** ** ** **</p><p>“He has a telepath,” Moira said, narrowing her eyes, “then we need to go through old cases of death. From everything we know,” she looked at Emma, “this telepath could have killed people using his power, making it look like suicides or strokes and things like that.”</p><p>“That won’t be useful.” Erik protested.</p><p>“Of course it is,” Emma said. “New cases might appear to be linked to Shaw, more data.”</p><p>Erik could see that it was valid, but…</p><p>“I think we have to try and get information directly from Mystique. Emma can…”</p><p>Moira pursed her lips. “You know well that I do not condone torture, Erik.”</p><p>Erik stood up and paced, his nostrils flared, and his hands were closed so tightly that he was sure that there would be half-moon marks on his palms.</p><p>“This is the closest we are to getting Shaw!” he said. “I don’t want to waste this chance. For all we know, Shaw could be planning a rescue… or an elimination for that woman. Besides, he must have already changed his location, so we must act as quickly as possible.”</p><p><br/>
“I agree with you, Erik. However, I am in charge here, and I do not want to go as low as the criminals that I want to bring to justice. So, I will not condone violence… not yet,” she added the last part in a whisper, “I will talk to her, Emma will try to… gently look at her mind again. And, if by the end of week we still have nothing, then… Then we will discuss the next steps. That is my deadline, and I will not negotiate anything before it. As you already said, Shaw must have already changed location, so for all we know it could all be useless. Besides, I have new information.”</p><p>That got Erik’s interest, mildly placating his irritation.</p><p>“Raven Xavier does exist. Sean looked into that. Mystique could be saying the truth—that she is, indeed, this Raven.”</p><p>Moira opened a file, and Erik sat down again, and started to look at the papers. One of them got his attention.</p><p>“She was adopted.”</p><p>“Yes. The parents—Sharon and Brian Xavier—went through the paperwork and really adopted her, legally. She was seven years old at the time. Here, pictures.”</p><p>Erik looked at the photo—a small, blonde girl was standing, smiling, beside a boy, who was a bit taller than her.</p><p>“How did Sean got this picture?”</p><p>“That’s where it gets interesting. Raven Xavier disappeared in 2007, she was ten years old at the time. Her brother disappeared too. These photos were used to search for them. The parents are dead. Sharon died in the same night the children disappeared—alcohol poisoning. Brian had killed himself three years later.”</p><p>“Enchanting family,” Emma said.</p><p>“Yes, you bet. It doesn’t stop there. Sharon had remarried after Brian’s suicide. Kurt Marko was the name of her new husband. He never reported that his stepchildren went missing, it was the man who worked at the Xaviers who did it.”</p><p>Erik looked through the rest of the papers. There was the documentation about the Xavier siblings going missing, and the name of Raven’s brother—Charles.</p><p>“Emma, you said that the woman was worried about a Charles. Here, look at it,” he handed the papers to the telepath.</p><p>“What?” Moira asked.</p><p>“I could pick some thoughts from Mystique. She was worried about a Charles. Her concern had to be really strong, for me to notice it, with the block on her mind.”</p><p>“So it could be the brother,” Moira wondered and picked up the phone, dialing, “Sean. I want everything about the Xaviers… yes, I know, but I want more information. And Kurt Marko, I want to know everything about him—where he is now, what he is doing… Charles Xavier, I want to know if he is mutant and… Find more about Raven Xavier before she was adopted by the Xaviers… I don’t care, Cassidy. Do your job… we might, we are close to something big.”</p><p>Moira hung up and rested her head on her heads, collecting her thoughts.</p><p>“You, Emma, need to go and talk to Kurt Marko as soon as Sean gets his location. I’ll go and talk to the man who worked at the Xaviers and reported the disappearance of the children.”</p><p>Emma narrowed her eyes, and Erik was sure that a silent conversation was going between the women.</p><p>“What do you think?” he asked, “do you two have some great idea about all of this, and how this can be useful?”</p><p>“Oh, here we go…” Emma drawled before Moira started to speak.</p><p>“There is something strange in all of this, don’t you think? Rich family adopts a girl—mutant, probably—the father kills himself. The mother remarries, her children disappear in the same night she dies of alcohol poisoning. Her husband does not report the children missing… and now, somehow it is all connected to Sebastian Shaw. Do you want to know what I think? That Mystique has been forced by Shaw’s telepath to act on his bidding. Or that he’s been using her brother to control her. Or both.”</p><p>** ** ** **</p><p>“No,” Charles said, “I won't kill anyone else for you.”</p><p>"I see," Sebastian said, icily. "Now that your incentive has... run away, you decided to defy me. I guess I will need to give you another incentive, no?"</p><p>And then Charles was on the floor—he hadn't even seen the blow coming—his cheek exploded in pain, and he could taste blood on his tonge. Then there was a kick to his shin, and this one was fueled with only a part of Sebastian's power, Charles knew that, or it would have been much worse. Still, the pain from that had him blacking out for a few seconds.</p><p>When Charles came back, he was bound to the metal table, and saw Sebastian approaching, a needle in his hand.</p><p>“This, Charlie, is your new incentive.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
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